Independent Review of VA's FY 2014 Performance Summary Report to the Office of National Drug Control Policy

The Office of Inspector General is required to review the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Performance Summary Report to the Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), pursuant to ONDCP Circular: Accounting of Drug Control Funding and Performance Summary (Circular), dated January 18, 2013, and as authorized by 21 U.S.C. § 1703(d)(7). The Performance Summary Report is the responsibility of VA’s management and is included in this report as Attachment A (Patient Reported Abstinence) and Attachment B (Research and Development). We reviewed, according to the Circular’s criteria and requirements, whether VA has a system to capture performance information accurately and whether that system was properly applied to generate the performance data reported in the Performance Summary Report. We also reviewed whether VA offered a reasonable explanation for failing to meet a performance target and for any recommendations concerning plans and schedules for meeting future targets or for revising or eliminating performance targets. Furthermore, we reviewed whether the methodology described in the Performance Summary Report and used to establish performance targets for the current year is reasonable given past performance and available resources; and whether VA established at least one acceptable performance measure for each Drug Control Decision Unit, as defined by the Circular, for which a significant amount of obligations were incurred. Based upon our review and the Circular’s criteria, nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe VA does not have a system to capture performance information accurately or the system was not properly applied to generate the performance data reported in the Performance Summary Report. The Department concurred with our report.